Please keep your leaf blowing to yourself.

I will be the first to say that BYU has beautiful grounds. The lawn is always perfect, the hedges trimmed and the flower beds weed-free. But I think the grounds crew is one of the most inefficient programs on campus. I constantly am seeing people doing useless things and calling it yard work. Today for example I had just settled down to eat my lunch and read a book in peace when rrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr! I look over and this guy is using a leaf blower on the cement. First of all, it's about 4 months too early for any threat of leaves on the freshly mowed lawn and second of all he was using a leaf blower on the CEMENT! And it was loud! I just put my book back in my purse and tried to consume my lunch as fast as I could before he came over my way with that nuisance of a machine. This experience would not evoke a reaction out of me if it had not been for the many unpleasant run ins I have had with the grounds crew workers in the past. There is this one guy that really gets on my nerves. Zach has heard all about him. He rides around campus on this "sidewalk sweeper" for lack of a better term. He is constantly sweeping the sidewalk. I have no idea what he thinks he is accomplishing by doing this but he seems to always be riding on this thing when I am trying to make my way across campus on my cell phone. There is nothing on the sidewalk that needs sweeping and this contraption is even louder than the leaf blower! He wears these ridiculous looking head phones so he is immune from the noise and apparently immune from any common sense too. He doesn't look where he is driving and does not yield for pedestrians (yea, found that one out the hard way). It just seems very superfluous to me to have these people wasting their days away blowing imaginary leaves and being super obnoxious while doing it! I think the problem lies in student employment. If you have ever been a student employee, you know what I mean. Simply put, they hire too many people and don't pay enough. Example: While I was a custodian at an apartment complex we would send upwards of five people to go clean windows... so basically one person cleans the window and the others sit and watch. What a waste of time! I think the grounds crew needs to cut back on employee hours and keep it to mowing the lawns and planting flowers. We can keep the leaf blowers in the shed for a few more months, and even then, how about we don't blow the leaves while I'm eating lunch, OK?! good.